PILOT SCOTT TRACYWe Cut Loose!virus356 (2006) CD - $12.00iTunesemusic
Pilot Scott Tracy is a brainchild of Scott and Tracy Cox-Stanton, formerly of the Causey Way. It is a flight of fantasy based on the good old days of air travel when stewardesses coddled you with free beverages and fluffed pillows. Their music, described by one critic as "aggressively homo," is sometimes raw, sometimes pretty, sometimes serious, sometimes silly, a delicious collision of early punk and new wave.

The spark of inspiration was set off when Mark Mothersbaugh gave Scott and Tracy a personal tour of the Devo HQ, schooling them on vintage keyboards, equipment, and sounds. As with their last AT outing Any City, Scott dishes out the jagged guitar attacks with his frantic, paranoid vocals while Tracy counteracts with her serene, dreamy voice on the slow numbers, including a sublime cover of The Smiths "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out."

This time around, PST's lineup has been fortified by four additional members whose resumes include Man Or Astroman, Mooney Suzuki, and more musical madness! Strip away the air travel theme, and you have a solid effort that references a slew of original Punk/New Wave greats like Devo, the B-52s, and even The Cramps!

While real-life airlines stagnate and fizzle away into bankruptcy, PST Airlines' stock continues to rise as the general public catches onto the New Wave-Punk hybrid these kids pioneered back in their Causey days. It's time to cash in your frequent flyer miles, baby!

"Being a bit too young to fully appreciate the rise of early 80's new wave and alterna-pop, Pilot Scott Tracy acts as a refresher course on what once existed. With bouncing keyboards, surprisingly angular and powerful guitar (best heard on 'Woo'), the band takes Are We Not Men?-era Devo and slams it together with the Damned's debut disc to crate something more energizing than a sugar rush. The tracks are blissfully brief, with Scott Stanton's busy, kinetic playing dominating efforts like 'Just Like You' and 'So Strange', but then nicely blending into the tableau of 'You Are Alone'. 'Country Style' sounds like the indie equivalent of the Batman theme, while 'Jules, Jean and Juliette' has a bass-synth hook that would make Peter Hook drool. An apropos addition is the cover of the Smith's 'There is a Light That Never Dies Out'; a version that remains true but does not offer a cheap facsimile of the original. The disc also includes a bonus song that is worth hanging around to hear, for it's a live version of 'UFO', where the listener truly gets an opportunity to appreciate the energy and startling audience adoration of this band."- Jersey Beat